The staffing level is The Elephant in the Room that nobody wants to talk about. Shannon had staff manning the Car Park Exits almost 30 years after Dublin and Cork had phased them out and replaced them with an automatic system. Just one example of needless expenditure.
The ratio of staff to passengers at Shannon has always been far higher than at Cork even though they are both State airports. If they could get their cost base right they might do far better in terms of traffic growth!